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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKids who died from flu last season: Most skipped vaccine
Half of Americans are still failing to get vaccinated against influenza, even though it kills thousands every year, health experts said Thursday. But they've got plenty of scare stories to help persuade people think perfectly healthy 8-year-old boys dying in the intensive care unit, or pregnant women gasping for breath as they deliver premature babies.
Flu killed more than 100 kids last season, and 90 percent of them had not been vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
But theres progress: now, 90 percent of doctors and nurses have been vaccinated against the virus, which protects them and their patients from flu. Policies requiring vaccination as a condition of employment have helped get the numbers this high.
Only a third of young and middle-aged adults have been vaccinated, and that was a big mistake last year, says Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University. Flu hit young and middle-aged adults hard last year and just over 100 children died, he told a briefing sponsored by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. There is simply no reason to take the risk.
http://www.today.com/parents/kids-who-died-flu-last-season-most-skipped-vaccine-1D80157067
Skittles
(153,160 posts)bhikkhu
(10,716 posts)kickysnana
(3,908 posts)Skittles
(153,160 posts)it is simply not possible (it's myth #1 among many)
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/17/opinion/flu-vaccine-caudle-opinion/
B Calm
(28,762 posts)my flu shot in early October.
tammywammy
(26,582 posts)My appointment is October 7.
Warpy
(111,257 posts)because they're likely to survive the flu and have lifetime immunity to that specific strain and partial immunity to other strains with similar components. Kids are different and the younger they are, the more they need the protection.
Health care workers are vaccinated to protect the patients. As soon as the vaccine came in, we'd form a circle and stab each other. No one got to avoid it unless they were allergic to eggs and you'd better believe it that the hospital gave them the scratch test to confirm it.
Flu vaccine is an amazing success story considering it's based on guesswork from year to year about which strain(s) will be out there.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)And most adults have regular contact with both.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)I need to get one.
Shagbark Hickory
(8,719 posts)I think I'll save the money.
I'm not a healthcare worker or in a sensitive group.
bhikkhu
(10,716 posts)...but if the people getting the flu (and transmitting the flu) are 90% un-vaccinated, then that's a good reason to get a shot, to not be one of those.
Shagbark Hickory
(8,719 posts)and you know what he said?
He said we take them because we're around sick patients all day but you're a healthy young man, you're not immunocompromised, you're not elderly or in a sensitive group. You don't need one.
At the time, and for many years to follow, getting a flu shot 'just because' was frowned upon because the vaccines were not in an unlimited supply and they were needed for certain people.
His advice for avoiding flu was to wash your hands before you eat or touch your face. Maintain a healthy immune system by eating right, exercise and getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night. This is the strategy that I use.
I think these flu shots are just a money maker for the drug stores, supermarkets and vaccine makers. The same companies that release flu to begin with to sell tylenol. Only they want it all.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)gollygee
(22,336 posts)but they try to get the worst ones - the ones that will make you the sickest - and the ones most likely to be out there that given year.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)They can only predict which may be the most troublesome and develop a vaccine to fight those.
A Little Weird
(1,754 posts)As a result a high percentage of workers gets vaccinated.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)Of course, they work at a very large company. A nurse comes in for the day and people can go and get their vaccine at their convenience throughout the day. I think that's a great idea for a company - a lot less people using their sick days, that's for sure.
A Little Weird
(1,754 posts)That seems like a really good way to do it.
Shagbark Hickory
(8,719 posts)I guess they want to try to eliminate that as a possible excuse for why one can't come in to work.
A Little Weird
(1,754 posts)Those were for patient protection and I think that is very reasonable (although I can understand how some of the staff that aren't in contact with patients may feel that they shouldn't be included in the mandate).
Have you heard of mandates from non-healthcare related employers? While I think people should get the vaccine, I would stop short of saying it should be mandated - especially mandated by the employer.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)I've had to go to the ER for the flu several times when my lungs go into a severe asthma attack which seems to happen every time I get the flu. I'm considered high risk so I nearly always get it (4 out of the last 5 years - the only reason I didn't get it the 5th time is I had the flu twice that year before the vaccine for that year even came out).
My kids, however, have never had issues with the flu (but they still get the yearly shot most of the time) but norovirus has sent them to the ER far more often. My oldest even weathered H1N1 really well (an outbreak at her school right before the vaccine became available) even though she was sick, no respiratory issues. But norovirus was so nasty that my kids got dehydrated pretty quickly as toddlers and I had to bring them in. I looked it up - many people die from norovirus every year. I really wish they would hurry up and come up with a vaccine. I've never been so sick in my life as when I had that dreaded virus. A friend of mine had her baby die from it (he had an underlying undetected mild heart defect and his heart stopped while he was being rehydrated in the hospital because he had been so sick from norovirus).
Anyway, as someone who is high risk, it bothers me when people around me aren't concerned about getting it. My dad refuses too. He still thinks he's invincible. And he thinks when I get sick and can't breathe I'm being a baby.
A Little Weird
(1,754 posts)For a long time, I never got the flu vaccine. It was just not something that was really on my radar. When my grandma was diagnosed with cancer, I decided I needed to get vaccinated just so I would be less likely to pass any sickness to her. When I took her for her treatments or doctor's appointments, I would wince every time I heard somebody sneeze or cough.
Unfortunately she lost he battle with cancer. I still get vaccinated every year (unless there's a shortage). Before her illness, it had never really occurred to me how many high risk people I might be coming into casual contact with throughout my day. So now I believe that everyone should get vaccinated if they are able to.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)how many 'high risk' people they come into contact with every day. My ex-FIL was on dialysis when we started getting the vaccine on a regular basis. He looked fine on the outside, but had a severely compromised immune system. In our town, there are many people I KNOW of that are high risk that we see often (a friend's child with cystic fibrosis, another friend's child with a blood disorder, my ex-MIL - who still visits us - has sarcoidosis that affects her lungs), I can't imagine how many more we don't know about.
I had been an off/on person with regards to the flu vaccine. Started getting it sometimes as a teen after I was diagnosed with asthma and started catching the flu which always developed into bronchitis. It was recommended that it would help my lungs. Then I moved away from home and started having babies and nursing them, and my asthma went into total remission. I for many years, I only needed my rescue inhaler once a year or so. So I kind of forgot that I even had an issue and I didn't get any flu vaccines. Then when I was preparing to deliver my youngest (by C-section) I came down with bronchitis again (that REALLY sucked with a C-section, omg it was hellish) and have been battling it every time I get the flu ever since. Usually when I get it, my cough lingers for months and months. I have to go into the ER or a walk in clinic for breathing treatments because the at home stuff isn't enough. It's not even that it's probably dangerous - my quality of life suffers for many months when I get sick. I'm dreading this year's season of illness, because I'm now working full time and I don't know how I'll get through it without a lot of time off.
Yep, I never used to think about it. You know when you hear, "it's only people with underlying medical conditions that are dying" and you think, "oh, I'm glad that's not me. I can relax." It REALLY sucks when you are that person with an underlying medical condition and no one around you is worried about protecting you.
mainer
(12,022 posts)And no single vaccine can protect you against it. Every time I travel, I seem to come down with it, yet prior infection offers no protection against the next infection.
TBF
(32,060 posts)but sadly no vaccines for those. My kids already got their flu shots this month.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(149,615 posts)We ALWAYS get them, and we have never been sick.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)and we've never had the flu either. (I'm over 50)
You know I love you Peg, but I'm not a huge believer in the flu vaccine.
Smallpox etc...all the childhood things of course. Not an anti-vaccine peep.
But flu, no.
seabeyond
(110,159 posts)twice.
and even then, we did not get it. finding some wood to knock on.
gollygee
(22,336 posts)and I've made that mistake and won't again. My older kid in particular almost never gets sick, and even if she's sick something that makes someone else sick for a week makes her sick for part of a day. We were really busy one fall and just didn't seem to get her in for the vaccine, and she got the flu and it was HORRIBLE. She was sicker than I've ever seen anyone get from the flu, and it took a long time for her lungs to recover. The flu is funny that sometimes, the people with the strongest immune systems get hit the hardest by it. Everyone who can should get the vaccine for themselves and their kids! Being strong and healthy doesn't make it OK to skip.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)and still doesn't get one is a fucking moron.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)You know that, right?
It's not like the vaccines for smallpox etc. You can get a flu shot and still get sick from the flu.
aikoaiko
(34,170 posts)seabeyond
(110,159 posts)reading some of the comments, i would suggest that many parents do not see it as high risk. nor a mediocre risk. not much of a risk at all. if your child is one of the 100, then THAT is the big deal.
just saying.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)In all, about 1/1,000,000 kids, or 0.000001% of the child population, died from the flu. And 10% of those kids had been vaccinated.
I can certainly see why a lot of parents would not view not getting a flu shot as high-risk, medium-risk, or even much of a risk at all.
Logical
(22,457 posts)seabeyond
(110,159 posts)damn, gotta knock on wood again.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)How hard is that to understand?
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)over the years -- I'm 66 -- I've gotten the flu any number of times. although I probably last got it a good 40 years ago. I have a very healthy immune system, and given that I've gotten flu and been exposed to flu, I do not think I'm at any particular risk. And please do not tell me that I'm a terrible danger to those who don't have my immunity because I could easily be a non-symptomatic carrier, as I've been accused of in the past on this very board.
If others think it's a good idea to get the shot then they should go ahead and get it. But please do not accuse me of being the reason others get the flu.
Several years ago, during the H1N1 outbreak, I politely refused to get a flu shot at work because, as I explained to the clueless 22 year old trying to get me to get it, I was in the very precise category of people -- over 60 -- who were last on the list to get the shot.
I'm not a total anti-vaxxer. A year ago I got the shingles shot. About five years ago I got my DPT shot. I do think that I'm at incredibly low risk of getting the flu and so I do not get the shot.
As more and more of the population get their immunity from the flu vaccine, it will become the only way to get immunity from the flu. In my case I've gotten flu enough times that I feel confident in my immunity.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Plus I'm easily healthy and young enough to survive it. Meh
Orrex
(63,210 posts)Free for employees, their spouses & children.
Of the dozen people I talked to who didn't take advantage of this service, 11 said "well, I never get the flu," and the 12th said "I don't trust vaccinations."
MH1
(17,600 posts)has been identified as at risk for complications from the shot.
GOLGO 13
(1,681 posts)9/10 that tell me they don't I guess their politics correctly. Every now and then I run into a moron that should know better.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)They said it's extremely important for a someone with diabetes to be vaccinated.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)leftyladyfrommo
(18,868 posts)One of my customers is an ICU nurse. They had big problems with that flu and several people died. She said they were all people in their late 30's or 40's who had not gotten the shot.
I get one every year. I don't want the flu.